2014 WORLD CUP QUALIFYING

When: Friday through fall 2013. The first two games are Friday and June 12, followed by a three-month break.

Who: 12 nations remain, including the USA and Mexico.

Format: The semifinal round consists of three groups of four teams. The top two from each group advance to a six-team final round next year, and the top three go to the 2014 World Cup. The fourth-place team faces the Oceania champion in a two-leg playoff for a final spot in Brazil.

Juergen Klinsmann has been U.S. men’s national coach for 10 months now. His team has played 13 games, and won six. It has been shut out five times, most recently by a Canada team that hasn’t qualified for the World Cup since 1986. Eight of its 14 goals came in games against Scotland and Slovenia, with a combined population of 7 million; the Yanks have scored six goals in the other 11.

This is the guy who is supposed to revolutionize American soccer?

This is also the United States, which means not enough people care to make much of a fuss. If there is one advantage to being U.S. national coach (and given the shallow player pool and flawed development system, there aren’t many), it is that you can work in relative peace without fear of having “For Sale” signs planted in your front yard after tying Canada 0-0.

Klinsmann will get time. He should, too.

He almost didn’t when he became Germany’s national coach in 2004 and promptly started losing after changing everything – the roster, the staff, the formation, the entire mentality. Following a 4-1 thrashing by Italy, the iconic German striker kept his job only after Chancellor Angela Merkel intervened. Four months later, he led Germany to the 2006 World Cup semifinals.

And let’s be truthful: In international soccer, nothing really matters other than the World Cup.

Klinsmann ultimately won’t be judged by what’s happened so far, which includes a 1-0 win at Italy and a 4-1 waxing at home by Brazil, but by what happens next. World Cup qualifying in the CONCACAF region, an 18-month adventure through Caribbean islands and Central American jungles and Mexico’s fearsome Estadio Azteca, opens Friday in Tampa, Fla., against Antigua and Barbuda.

Here’s a look how things have gone so far.

Roster

Klinsmann instantly overhauled the roster after taking over in Germany, but that’s because he could. Germany and the Bundesliga are loaded with talented players.

Not so here. Perhaps the most striking aspect of Klinsmann’s U.S. rosters is their similarity to those of his predecessor, Bob Bradley. Klinsmann might not say so publicly, but his selections continually do it for him: America simply doesn’t have many world-class players despite a population of 313 million (nearly four times that of Germany).